Phil Porter and Amanda Jefferies - herts.ac.uk · Introduction to Electronic Voting Systems ... Phil Porter and Amanda Jefferies . ... and empower them by giving them tools to create

Blended Learning In Practice July 2010

Editorial

Phil Porter and Amanda Jefferies

Contributor Profiles

Phil Porter, Amanda Jefferies, Helen Singer, Fang Lou,

Jenny Lorimer, Alex Lee, Sandy Wong, Sally Graham and

Joy Jarvis

Articles

International Students‘ Authorship Helen Singer

Introduction to Electronic Voting Systems (EVS) Fang Lou and Jenny Lorimer

Working on a staff research project Kiran Chakravarti

Simulation Games: Shifting from Conceptual Learning to

Experiential Learning Alex Lee

Enquiry-based Learning in Undergraduate Midwifery Educa-

tion Sandy Wong

Student Voice

Developing and Listening to Student Voices... Coordinated by Sally Graham and Joy Jarvis

2 Contents

3

5

8

27

35

36

50

61

3 Editorial


Welcome to the July 2010 edition of

our e-journal, Blended Learning in

Practice. In this edition we present a

mix of papers that cover issues as

diverse as plagiarism, simulation

games and enquiry-based learning. We

also present our regular case study

section, which this issue focuses on the

use of electronic voting systems (EVS).

Finally, our student voice sections

cover participation in a staff research

project and coverage of another project

that investigates student views on feedback. As usual, material in the journal is

supported by a variety of multimedia resources that can be accessed where

indicated.

In our first research paper in this issue, Helen Singer discusses authorship and

originality, with particular reference to the view from international students. Helen

presents results gained from a Learning and Teaching Institute funded research study

entitled ‗Fostering pride in International Students‘ Authorship‘. Specifically, the thorny

issue of plagiarism is considered and Helen considers a range of strategies using

plagiarism detection software and online tutorials to both help students avoid falling

prey to accusations of plagiarism, and also to foster pride in the originality of their

work.

In our case study section Fang Lou and Jenny Lorimer provide guidance in the use of

electronic voting systems. Electronic voting systems allow academics to incorporate

regular formative questions into teaching sessions and have been shown to enhance

student engagement and interest. Jenny and Fang provide step-by-step guidance on

the use of two popular commercially available EVS systems; Promethean™ and

Turning Point™.

Sandy Wong then shares her experience of incorporating enquiry-based-learning into

modules delivered to trainee midwives. Sandy considers the advantages and

potential drawbacks of adopting a teaching and learning technique that places

students firmly at the centre of their learning process.

In our final research paper in this issue, Alex Lee discusses the application of

technology to the teaching of business students. Specifically, Alex provides a

discussion of the merits and perceived drawbacks of incorporating web-based

simulation ‗games‘ into modules and concludes that the net educational benefits are

positive.

Phil Porter and Amanda Jefferies

http://www.herts.ac.uk/lti

Finally, in our regular ‗student voice section‘, level 3 undergraduate student Kiran

Chakravarti talks about his experience of taking part in staff research fieldwork in the

Swiss Alps, while Sally Graham and Joy Jarvis present findings from a research project

that sought to investigate how students view feedback on their work with the ultimate goal

of improving learning, teaching and the curriculum by listening to the student voice.

We hope that you enjoy exploring our July 2010 issue of Blended Learning in Practice. As

ever, we warmly welcome your comments and contributions for future editions. If you are

interested in contributing then please contact us via Dr Phil Porter: [email protected]


4 Editorial

mailto:[email protected]?subject=BLIP

5 Contributor Profiles


Amanda Jefferies is a Reader in Technology Enhanced Learning and a Principal Lecturer in the School of Com-puter Science at the University of Hertfordshire. She is seconded to the Blended Learning Unit (CETL), where she is Evaluation Coordinator and leads on Scholarship, Re-search and Evaluation. Her own research interests relate to students‘ experiences of using technology to support learning. Beyond the University she is a member of the JISC Learning and Teaching Experts group and supports the E-Learning Experiences Special Interest Group ELE-SIG.

Phil Porter is a Senior Lecturer in Physical Geography and has been active in glaciological research since 1993. After completing a PhD (Leeds) in borehole instrumentation of fast flowing glaciers, Phil took up lectureships at Manches-ter and Leeds and joined the University of Hertfordshire in 2003. His current research interests concern the response of the cryosphere to environmental change. Phil is also a LTI teacher taking a lead on ‗research informed teaching‘.

Phil and a group of his students have just returned from a two-week trip to Switzerland. Phil runs an annual project in the Swiss Alps allowing University of Hertfordshire stu-dents to collect field research data for dissertation and pro-ject work. The ultimate aim of his work in Switzerland is to further the integration of teaching and research.

Phil Porter

Amanda Jefferies

[email protected]

[email protected]

http://www.herts.ac.uk/blu

http://www.herts.ac.uk/about-us/learning-and-teaching/learning-teaching-institute/home.cfm





Helen Singer is the Lead Knowledge and Business Intelli-gence Consultant (KBIC) within Information Hertfordshire; she and the KBIC team which she manages work in part-nership with all the Strategic Business Units (SBUs) across the University. Helen started her career at the Brit-ish Council, and after an MA in Librarianship spent 2 years in a City Law Library before joining the University as an Information Consultant in 2000. Helen has a PG Di-ploma in Learning and Teaching, is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and is particularly interested in sup-port for international students, information literacy and blended learning

Fang Lou is a senior lecturer in Physiology in the School of Life Science, University of Hertfordshire. She obtained her first degree in China and PhD in Sweden. Fang has worked in muscle research at Im-perial College and joined the University of Hertford-shire in 2002. Her research interests include muscle physiology and pathology. Fang is also a LTI teacher working in the area of assessment and curriculum de-sign. She employs a variety of technology, including electronic voting systems (EVS) to enhance the stu-dent learning experience.

Jenny Lorimer is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Health & Emergency Professions. Having worked as a Superin-tendent Radiographer running a CT scanning service, Jenny moved into full-time teaching at the University of Hertfordshire in 2001. Her teaching interests are centred on anatomy, pathology and the appearance of pathologies on diagnostic images. Jenny is also a LTI teacher with her main focus being contributing to the Continuing Profes-sional Academic Development in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education (CPAD) Programme. Jenny has been actively involved in research into Learning and Teaching for a number of years and has been using electronic voting systems since 2005.

Helen Singer

Fang Lou

Jenny Lorimer

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]

http://www.studynet.herts.ac.uk/ptl/common/LIS.nsf/file+list/KBICsleaflet.pdf/$FILE/KBICsleaflet.pdf






Sandy Wong

Sandy Wong joined the School of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work at the University of Hertfordshire (UH) as a midwifery lec-turer in June 2009. Prior to this, she has been a clinical mentor for many years, mainly as a community midwife. Her previous role as a community clinical manager also saw her involvement with Child Protection at the strategic level. Sandy has also undertaken a qualitative research project on perinatal mental health for her MSc degree. She sees herself as an expert in normality in pregnancy and childbirth, with special interests in diversity and public health. Since joining UH, Sandy has completed her CPAD (1-4 modules) programme and is an associate of the Higher Education Acad-emy.

Alex Lee

[email protected]

[email protected]

Alex Lee is a Senior Lecturer in the Marketing & Enterprise Department of the Business School at the University of Hertfordshire (UH). Prior to joining UH, Alex‘s expertise spans over 10 years in the fields of Advertising, Branding, and Marketing; and 5 years in Academia in Malaysia. Alex believes in keeping up to date with the changes in tech-nologies and life-long learning.

Sally Graham Sally Graham is CPD Programme Director in the School of Education. She believes strongly in the importance of listen-ing to students‘ views to improve student participation. In this issue of Blended Learning in Practice Sally contributes to our regular ‗student voice‘ section by exploring the issue of feedback and assessment.

[email protected]

[email protected]

Joy Jarvis is Associate Dean (Learning, Teaching and Employ-ability) in the Faculty of Humanities, Law and Education. The focus of her practice and research is exploring different ap-proaches to teaching. Her leadership involves creating effective learning conversations in a wide range of contexts.

Joy Jarvis





International Students’ Authorship

8 International Students’ Authorship


Helen Singer University of Hertfordshire [email protected]

Abstract

In order to improve information literacy, reduce plagiarism and develop pride in authorship

of written work amongst international students a research study was undertaken at the Uni-

versity of Hertfordshire within the Business School, trialling a holistic approach to dealing

with these issues. The key objectives of the project were to raise awareness of the issue of

plagiarism amongst students, develop understanding of academic integrity and authorship,

encourage the use of ‘quality’ information and correct referencing, improve academic writing

skills and inform educational policy within the Business School and the wider University.

The project was carried out with thirty-four international students studying a Business Strat-

egy module in the Business School. The project was directly linked to a Business Strategy

assignment through a sequence of re-usable blended learning workshops, with input from

an Academic Skills tutor and the use of i-Spy, the university’s online information skills tutori-

als. In addition, students used the plagiarism detection software ‘Turnitin’ as an educational

tool for formative feedback to develop their authorship skills.

The success of the project was evaluated against the student success in course assess-

ments, together with feedback obtained from students via reflective logs, a focus group and

a questionnaire. Feedback was also obtained from tutors and external examiner via inter-

views. The workshops were found to have improved the skills of the sample cohort. Stu-

dents used a wider range of sources, referenced them correctly and, according to the mod-

ule leader, did not plagiarise. It is recommended that benefits may be derived from adopting

a holistic approach towards dealing with the issues of authorship and plagiarism.

Background

This paper presents the findings of a University of Hertfordshire Learning and Teaching In-

stitute funded project ‗Fostering Pride in International Students‘ Authorship.‘ carried out in

collaboration with Karen Robins, now the Business School‘s Director of Learning and

Teaching and Mary McCauley from the Business School‘s Academic Skills Unit. The project

ran from October 2008-January 2009. The aims of the project were to develop an under-

standing of authorship and originality in a cohort of principally Chinese international Busi-

ness School students studying for the Graduate Certificate in Business at the University of

Hertfordshire, through a series of ten workshops. Data was collected using qualitative and

quantitative methods to evaluate the success of the workshops.

In order for students to understand authorship and originality and take pride in authorship of

their own written work, workshops were devised to raise their understanding and awareness

of plagiarism, and empower them by giving them tools to create an original piece of aca-

demic writing. The workshops gave the students the opportunity of using the

mailto:[email protected]

9


originality checking software Turnitin for formative feedback, along with underpinning in-

formation literacy and academic skills input. The approach adopted was intentionally a

holistic one (see Figure 1), based on research already undertaken in this area.

Figure 1. A holistic approach

Plagiarism

Plagiarism has been defined by Dahl (2007 p.174) as ‗anything where a student incorpo-

rates a substantial, unacknowledged amount of materials derived from the work

(published or unpublished) of another student.‘

There are of course many reasons why plagiarism is a problem. Park (2003) cites the

reasons for tackling plagiarism as fairness, academic reputation and integrity, promotion

of good study skills and independent learning, and fostering a sense of responsibility

amongst students.

As far back as 2002, it was noted by Johnson and Rader (2002) that students are in-

creasingly using the internet for their information needs. Given the wealth of easily avail-

able information, it is very easy to ‗borrow‘ text without acknowledging it. The extent of

the problem is not readily quantifiable but there is rising concern (Park 2003). Park (2003)

also argues that the causes of plagiarism are many and complex, ranging from a genuine

lack of understanding to deliberate cheating.



10


Potential causes of plagiarism amongst international students

Although studies such as that by Varga-Atkins and Ashcroft (2004) found little difference

between the information skills of home and international students, there are concerns that

there are higher incidences of plagiarism amongst international students. There could be

many reasons for this, including culture and language.

The cultural issues surrounding plagiarism have been explored by Lake (2008), who sug-

gests that in China to paraphrase could signal disrespect to the author and Holmes (2004)

who suggests that in China there is greater allegiance to established authorities; however

Gu and Brooks (2008) argue strongly against generalisation whilst Liu (2005) argues that

plagiarism is not acceptable in China. Zhang (2006) and Song (2004) discuss the chal-

lenges faced by international business students at the University of Illinois in using virtual

reference resources.

Gu and Brooks (2008, p338) suggest that this goes deeper: ‗learning to write in an unfa-

miliar academic discourse requires, at the deepest level, a conceptual understanding of

knowledge construction and conventions in the dominant academic community, rather

than practice of mechanical aspects of citing and referencing‘.

Another cultural issue is the perception that international students have difficulty with criti-

cal thinking. Gu and Brooks (2008) argue that independent thinking is part of the Chinese

tradition but that there could be a problem for Chinese students in understanding the con-

cept of building on a body of knowledge to advance original thinking. Holmes (2004) dis-

cusses the problems of students having to change their learning styles.

Regarding language, Pecorari (2008) considers some of the linguistic issues that can put

international students at a disadvantage. To cope with poorer language skills, interna-

tional students may well employ the habit of patchwriting, where chunks of text are

stitched together, defined by Howard in 1993 and seen by Pecorari (2003) as an essential

phase before students‘ own voices can emerge.

Potential remedies

To maintain academic integrity, despite all these considerations there remains a need to

tackle plagiarism and JISC (the Government funded Joint Information Systems Commit-

tee) commissioned the Electronic Plagiarism Detection Project which reported in 2001.

According to JISC (2000) ‗Electronic detection has its place in institutions but the real so-

lutions lie in appropriate assessment mechanisms, supportive institutional culture, clear

definitions of plagiarism and policies for dealing with it and adequate training for staff and

students‘. In 2002 JISC set up Plagiarism Advice.org which has a resource bank of good

practice across institutions.

One electronic plagiarism detection tool is Turnitin, which was developed in 1998 and won

a contract with JISC to serve HE institutions in Britain (Park 2004). Turnitin produces

11


originality reports so that it is easy to see how much text is the student‘s own work.

In recent years, the emphasis has shifted from the use of Turnitin for detection to that of

an educational tool, so that the term ‗text matching‘ is preferred to ‗plagiarism detection‘.

Introna and Hayes (2008) call for a move away from a punitive legalistic approach to pla-

giarism that equates copying to plagiarism and move to a progressive and formative ap-

proach.

The importance of educating students in using Turnitin is underlined by Davis (2007) who

recommends tutor guidance in the use of Turnitin and also stresses that this is not a sin-

gle solution but should be used as part of an integrated approach.

Recently there have been more calls for Turnitin to be used for formative feedback. In-

trona and Hayes (2008) argue that inappropriate use of Turnitin is unfair, but that it

should be used formatively. Brick (n.d.) at Coventry University describes using Turnitin

for formative feedback. Ledwith and Risquez (2008) found a decrease in plagiarism when

anti-plagiarism software was used with peer reviewed assignments. Davis (2007) worked

with students on a Pre-Masters Diploma at Oxford Brookes University and recommended

using Turnitin with first drafts prior to assessment. This approach was reinforced more

recently by Davis and Carroll (2009).

A holistic approach

Instead of a punitive approach, seen by Leask (2006) as discriminatory, a holistic ap-

proach has been advocated by Gu and Brooks (2008), and Macdonald and Carroll

(2006). Education along with effective detection is seen as the best approach by Ange-

lova (1999) and Dahl (2007). Barrett and Malcolm (2006) from the University of Hertford-

shire discuss the importance of embedding plagiarism education in the assessment proc-

ess. The project aimed to supplement the use of Turnitin for formative feedback with two

other areas, information literacy and academic writing skills.

The importance of assisting students with information literacy has been identified by

Rowell (2009) while Barry (2006) discusses the importance of critical thinking and evalu-

ating sources and the need for instruction and practice in referencing. For this project, it

was felt that if students could be encouraged to use good quality sources of information

and were equipped with the skills to search good sources and evaluate them, the risk of

plagiarising websites could be reduced.

i-Spy (www.studynet.herts.ac.uk/go/ispy) is the University‘s information skills framework,

and is populated with online tutorials covering all aspects of working with information.

The i-Spy information skills framework, described by Bilson et al (2007) and shown at

Figure 2, was initially introduced to the University of Hertfordshire in 2007, following con-

sultation with staff and students and research by external consultants into the way people

work with information. Whilst most frameworks until this point were linear, the i-Spy

model is iterative, and populated with online tutorials in ‗bite-sized‘ chunks, reflecting the


http://www.studynet.herts.ac.uk/go/ispy%20


12


fact that students do not work in a linear, sequential fashion. In this sense they can be de-

scribed as reusable learning objects (Mardis and Ury, 2008).

Figure 2. The i-Spy framework

Academic writing skills are also vital and Elander et al (2010) have since shown that para-

phrasing practice brings positive results. The Academic Skills Unit (ASU) runs as a dis-

crete unique unit in the University of Hertfordshire Business School (UHBS). ASU‘s role/

mission is:

To encourage students to complete their studies at UHBS to their best ability by pro-

viding a range of supportive resources, and empower them to develop their full po-

tential as independent learners.

To liaise with UHBS staff to improve teaching and learning

ASU, whose website is shown in Figure 3, runs skills workshops almost daily to support all

students, including academic essay/report and dissertation writing, Harvard referencing,

editing and proof reading, team work, presentation skills, reflective writing, creativity, criti-

cal evaluation, statistics and numeracy, exam revision tips and various self management

workshops such as managing stress and time management.

This project was a vehicle for i-Spy tutorials, academic skills content and the use of Tur-

nitin to be brought together to support students conducting a specific piece of work, so

that the students could see the immediate benefits rather than viewing the workshops in

isolation.

http://www.studynet1.herts.ac.uk/fac/co/BS.nsf/Teaching+Documents?Openview&count=9999&restricttocategory=Business+School+Student+Support/Academic+Skills

13


Figure 3. ASU website

Preparing for the workshops

The Graduate Certificate in Business Programme is a 15 week pre-Masters Programme

where international students study four business modules with intensive language and

study skills support. Successful completion of the Programme takes students on to a Mas-

ters course. The Programme is divided into two two-module blocks; the Programme which

starts in September has a second block beginning in November.

It was decided to work with students on a core module, Business Strategy, taken by the

whole cohort of thirty-four students in the second block. The learning outcomes of the

Business Strategy module focussed on research and critical analysis which fitted well with

the aims of the project.

The assessed piece of work for this module was a group assignment on Google‘s busi-

ness strategy. The workshops were designed and timed to support this piece of work. The

students on the Programme (and this module) were predominantly from China with a

smaller number from India and Nigeria, and one from Hong Kong. For the group assign-

ment they were mixed into multi-national groups.



14


Although no credits were attached to the workshops, it was agreed that students would be

told that attendance was compulsory and that non-attendance could lead to them dropping

a grade. The workshops took place over three weeks in November and December 2008,

as the students were preparing their assignments. The workshops were divided into five

blocks of two hours, held over three weeks in November and December, 2008. We di-

vided these into five sections as follows

Running the workshops

Workshop attendance was compulsory and monitored. Students were given individual in-

vitations to attend the workshops, signed by the Acting Programme Tutor to sanction the

workshops and demonstrate the importance of attending.

Attendance was generally good, even if a small number of students arrived quite late in

the session. All thirty-four students registered on the module attended the workshops.

At each workshop students were given handouts to accompany the online work or presen-

tations. A ‗team teaching‘ approach was used, and this was found to be useful for transfer-

ring knowledge between the team members. All the materials were also available elec-

tronically in weekly folders on the students‘ module page on StudyNet. At the end of each

workshop students were ask to complete a reflective blog which was saved in their Per-

sonal Development Portfolio area on StudyNet. This lent cohesion to the workshops and

aimed to make the students feel valued.

5. Content of the workshops

The first workshop, Search, shown in Figure 4, covered identifying sources of quality infor-

mation. Students were introduced to the i-Spy tutorials and asked to work through two:

Identifying Sources and Systematic Searching. Identifying Sources illustrates different

types of information, books, journals, databases and websites. Systematic Searching

gives tips on effective searching using keywords. The students were then directed to an

online tutorial on the module site which guided them to quality sources of information to

help them with the Google assignment. This was accompanied by a checklist listing good

sources of information for the assignment.

Thursday 13th November SEARCH

Monday 17th November READ AND CONSIDER

Monday 24th November WRITE AND REFERENCE

Thursday 27th November PRIDE IN AUTHORSHIP

Monday 1st December REFINE WORK

Figure 4. Content of first workshop

The second workshop, Read and Consider, covered evaluating sources. Students were

asked to work through the i-Spy online tutorial Evaluating and Verifying which asks them

to look at information considering Who, What, When and Why. This was followed by the i-

Spy Thinking Critically tutorial which looks at analysing and questioning viewpoints. This

was followed by a presentation on Academic Reading and students were given an ‗ASU

Guide to Academic Reading‘ which includes the SQR3 technique and a handout on plan-

ning for written assignments. Figure 5 shows some screenshots from the i-Spy tutorials

used by the students.

Figure 5. i-Spy tutorials

The third workshop covered Write and Reference. The first task was to show the students

the Avoiding Plagiarism website, to which the University had contributed. The students

were then introduced to the i-Spy Citing and Referencing tutorial, which links to an inter-

active quiz where students are asked to decide what constitutes plagiarism in a number

of scenarios. Students looked at an online ‗Harvard Referencing Guide‘ on the Business

Information pages of StudyNet and were asked to bring the results of a referencing quiz

to the next workshop. This was followed by a presentation introducing them to Turnitin,

and a very successful interactive session using the Electronic Voting System, where stu-

dents

15




16


Figure 6. Referencing quiz from Monash University used in i-Spy tutorial Citing and

Refencing and quiz on Collusion and Plagiarism used with electronic voting sys-

tem

At the fourth workshop Pride in Authorship, the results of the Harvard Quiz were exam-

ined as a group. Students then looked at ASU‘s Report Writing and Academic Writing

Style guide and the i-Spy Essay and Report Writing tutorial. Figure 7 shows some of

ASU‘s presentation on Academic Writing.

The groups then submitted their draft assignment to Turnitin, with the target for the simi-

larity index 10% and individual matches 1% or less. This was salutary, as some group

reports initially showed these as much higher.

Figure 7. Academic Writing presentation

The reason for setting the similarity index target at 10% was to encourage students to

paraphrase and use their own words. This was to avoid their work being highly derivative

which would indicate an excessive use of sources even if they had been referenced cor-

rectly. For homework, students were asked to use the Turnitin feedback to revise their

draft reports. Figure 8 shows a Turnitin originality report, as explained to the students.

Figure 8. A Turnitin originality report

The final workshop, Refine Work gave the students the opportunity of working in their

groups to refine their group assignments and resubmit them to Turnitin. The students

were advised on editing and proof reading and given an ASU Guide on drafting, editing

and proof reading. One group was happy to have their Turnitin results projected onto the

screen, as they had achieved a very pleasing low Turnitin score, meaning that they had

used their own words in the assignment and were able to paraphrase effectively. Stu-

dents were asked to email an overall reflective log, using the reflections from each of the

individual workshops.

6. Impact Assessment

The impact of the project was assessed in a number of ways. Feedback was obtained

from students using the students‘ own reflective blogs, an online evaluation form and a

focus group. Feedback from staff was obtained through interviews with the English tutor

supporting the module, the module leader and the external examiner; the latter two also

provided written reports.

17




18


6.1 Feedback from students

Fourteen reflective blogs were received, which provided a rich source of evaluative data.

The prompt questions asked after each workshop were:

What did you learn today?

What do you still need to work on?

How can you use what you learned today in your studies?

A final evaluative blog was also requested, with the questions:

What did you learn from the workshops?

What do you still need to work on?

How can you use what you learned in the workshops in your studies?

The standard of English in the reflective blogs was not very good in the case of the Chi-

nese students, and there is one case where two students have used identical incorrect

phrases. However, as a way of reinforcing what was covered in the workshops they are

useful. Although some of the blogs suggested the need for practice and the difficulties stu-

dents face regarding language, the reflections were very positive about the usefulness of

the workshops and the students seemed to have really understood their purpose. Some

examples can be seen at Figure 9.

Using the Bristol University online survey, a questionnaire was set up for students to pro-

vide feedback on the workshops in December, 2008. The questionnaire consisted of nine-

teen multiple choice questions to gauge how far students had understood the content of

the workshops, with two open questions on perceptions of i-Spy and the workshops gen-

erally.

Figure 9. Examples of comments from students’ reflective blogs

19



Students were emailed with a link to the questionnaire. However, the response rate was

disappointing with only thirteen out of thirty-four students completing the survey, despite

a £50 Amazon prize draw incentive. This may be attributed to the students being busy

completing assignments and having a Christmas/New Year holiday. However, the re-

sults were generally very positive as can be seen in Figure 10. The fact that only 78% of

respondents agreed/strongly agreed that they knew how to think critically following the

workshops could be attributed to the fact that this is the most difficult type of work, or

that the workshops had not addressed this area fully.

Figure 10. Results of questionnaire to students

This was followed by a one hour focus group in January, after Chinese New Year and

before the students embarked on their Masters Programmes. Six students of different

nationalities were chosen from those who agreed to give their time. Students were paid

£25 Amazon vouchers to participate. However, only three students attended the focus

group, all from China, so this was not a very representative sample. It was felt that the

timing of the focus group clashed with their holiday. However, it was necessary to col-

lect data at this time, before the students moved onto Masters Programmes, when it

would be difficult to get them together again and it was also felt that it was good timing

as recollection of the workshops were fresh in their minds.


20


Figure 11. Results from focus group.

The feedback (Figure 11) shows that students thought they would have benefitted from

having the workshops earlier in their Programme. They would also have liked to see more

examples of what constitutes good work. The students recognised the differences be-

tween studying in China and the UK, with the emphasis on writing essays, and interest-

ingly noted that plagiarism is not an issue in China although they knew that it is not toler-

ated here.

6.2 Feedback from the teaching staff and the external examiner

Staff interviews were conducted in December and January. The English tutor who pro-

vided four hours of English for every two hours of business content was quite pleased

with the outcome of the students‘ group assignments and confirmed that they showed

evidence of good structure, good use of a variety of sources, and good referencing but

were let down by language problems.

The module leader was more positive and stated that although there were language is-

sues, and that this was a small sample, he felt confident that the workshops had helped

improve the students‘ assignments.

The external examiner was very positive about the impact of the workshops. Following

the exam board, he recommended that similar workshops should be available to all Mas-

ters‘ students. Extracts from staff feedback are shown in Figure 12.

21


Figure 12: Extracts from staff feedback

7. Reflections on the project

The project was quite labour intensive in terms of time spent planning and running the

workshops. Great effort was made to ensure that the students valued the workshops

through regular reinforcement and encouragement.

It is possible that having an online tutorial guiding students to relevant sources of infor-

mation for the assignment would result in the good use of a wide range of sources,

rather than the i-Spy tutorials on ‗Identifying Sources‘ and ‗Systematic Searching‘, how-

ever this might not be sustainable and could impact on students‘ ability to develop inde-

pendence for future assignments.

One of the anticipated risks of the project was regarding how the students would use

Turnitin. One group did attempt to use the software to submit work other than the Busi-

ness Strategy assignment. However, it could be perceived that they saw the value of us-

ing the tool for formative feedback and wanted to use the opportunity to obtain feedback

on other assignments they were undertaking.

One possible outcome of using Turnitin might mean that the students‘ English is worse

because they have to paraphrase more. But it can be argued that having to paraphrase

is good practice and will help further in the long term by giving the students the opportu-

nity to use their own words.



22


8. Summary of results

The qualitative data from the questionnaire, reflective blogs and focus groups showed

that the workshops were very well received by the students. The questionnaire results

were extremely positive, with nearly all scores showing that over 90% agreed or

strongly agreed with statements confirming that the students had acquired skills in the

areas covered by the project.

Students and the external examiner felt that the workshops were very useful but should

have been held earlier in the semester. They felt that all Masters students would benefit

from similar input, possibly in the Research Methods module. The external examiner

reported evidence of wider reading in the assignments. The students would have liked

to see examples of good pieces of work and perhaps this could be introduced in the fu-

ture.

Regarding the use of Turnitin, this was successful and the students were keen to use it

further. The module leader reported no evidence of plagiarism in the students‘ work and

noticed that they had used fewer quotations, indicating that they had paraphrased more.

The area that scored least highly in the questionnaire was that of critical thinking, which

is known to be difficult for all students. However, the module leader thought that that this

was slightly better than with previous cohorts. The English tutor pointed out that he

would have liked the students to challenge him more, but this is probably a cultural is-

sue; and more work should be done in this area.

The evidence has shown that the work undertaken by the students has helped them

understand the importance of originality and authorship both in the context of the par-

ticular module, and for their future studies.

9. Conclusion and Recommendations

The workshops confirmed the findings of previous research, by demonstrating that in-

tensive underpinning work looking at finding and using good quality information, aca-

demic reading and writing, critical thinking and the formative use of Turnitin can all help

the standard and quality of international students‘ work and help them take pride in their

own authorship.

As a result of this pilot project the Business School are opening up the Turnitin draft fa-

cility for all students and this is embedded in the new core level 1 skills module. It is

hoped that this will help students towards the ultimate aim, identified by Gu and Brooks

(2008, p.350) of mastering ‗a different lens through which to view authorship and the

ownership of knowledge.‘

23


Recommendations

Ensure timeliness by holding workshops early in the Programme.

Continue to embed skills materials into assessed work.

Continue to make engagement with the materials mandatory.

Undertake further work on critical thinking and challenging the lecturer.

Encourage other academic staff to use Turnitin for formative feedback.

Run the workshops by blended learning for increased flexibility and in order to

‗scale up‘ to benefit more cohorts. This can be achieved through online exercises,

as with the i-Spy tutorials and quizzes. This would fit with the University‘s key aspi-

ration of 25% distance learning by 2015.

Since the workshops finished a new i-Spy tutorial, Academic Reading, has been

launched. This could be used to complement the ASU materials.8. Consider using

the ‗Recognising bias‘ i-Spy tutorial for more advanced work on critical thinking.

If the materials are to be rolled out to all Masters Programmes, they could be

linked to the Research Methods module with a small percentage of marks allo-

cated for successful completion.

10. Looking forward

Since this pilot, subject toolkits are available in the Learning Resources area of

StudyNet for each subject. These toolkits provide links to quality resources, i-Spy tutori-

als, and Referencing guides.

In addition, more work has since been undertaken in making Turnitin more easily avail-

able for students and staff to use formatively. Information Hertfordshire Knowledge Con-

sultants are working with the Academic Quality Office and the Director of Learning and

Teaching in the Business School to provide guidance.

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to Siegrid Beck for her work on the initial funding proposal.

References

Angelova, M. (1999). ‗‖If you don‘t tell me, how can I know?‖‘ Written Communication 16

(4) p.491-525.

Barrett, M. and Malcolm, J. (2006) ‗Embedding plagiarism education in the assessment

process‘. International Journal for Educational Academic Integrity 2(1) p.38-45

Barry, E. (2006) ‗Can paraphrasing practice help students define plagiarism?‘ College

Student Journal. 40(2) p.377-384

Bilson, J. Singer, H. and Rivers-Latham, M. (2007) ‗i-Spy: an information skills frame-


http://www.studynet1.herts.ac.uk/ptl/common/LIS.nsf/lis/Turnitin?OpenDocument&Login


24


work for the University of Hertfordshire.‘ Sconul Focus. 40 Spring. pp. 62-66. [Online]

Available at: http://www.sconul.ac.uk/publications/newsletter/40/22.pdf [Accessed: 21

February, 2009].

Brick, B. (n.d.) ‗From stick to carrot.‘ Available at: http://www.english.heacademy.ac.uk/

explore/publications/casestudies/assess/turnitin.php [Accessed: 24 February, 2009].

Dahl, S. (2007) ‗Turnitin®: The student perspective on using plagiarism detection soft-

ware.‘ Active Learning in Higher Education 8(2) p.173-191.

Davis, M. (2007) ‗The role of Turnitin within the formative process of academic writing: a

tool for learning and unlearning?‘ Brookes eJournal of Learning and Teaching 2(2) Avail-

a b l e a t : h t t p : / / b e j l t . b r o o k e s . a c . u k / a r t i c l e /

the_role_of_turnitin_within_the_formative_process_of_academic_writing/ [Accessed: 25

February, 2009].

Davis, M. and Carroll, J. (2009) ‗Formative feedback within plagiarism education: is there

a role for text-matching software?‘ The International Journal for Educational Integrity 5(2)

p.58-70.

Elander, J. et al (2010) ‗Evaluation of an intervention to help students avoid unintentional

plagiarism by improving their authorial identity‘. Assessment and Evaluation in Higher

Education 35(2) March p.157-171.

Gu, Q. and Brooks, J. (2008). ‗Beyond the accusation of plagiarism‘. System. 36(3) p.

337-352.

Holmes (2004) ‗Ethnic Chinese students in a New Zealand University‘. Business Com-

munication Quarterly. 67(3) September. p.294-307.

Howard, R. (1993) ‗A plagiarism pentimento‘. Journal of Teaching Writing. 11(2) p.233-

245.

Introna, L. and Hayes, N. (2008) ‗International Students and Plagiarism Detection Sys-

tems: Detecting Plagiarism, Copying or Learning?‘ In Roberts, T.S. (2008) Student pla-

giarism in an online world : problems and solutions. London : Information Science Refer-

ence.

Johnson, A. M. and Rader, H. B. (2002) ‗Library instruction and information literacy –

2001.‘ Reference Services Review. 30(4) p.359-389.

Joint Information Systems Committee. (2001). JISC Electronic Plagiarism Detection Pro-

ject. Available from http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/plagiarism.aspx

[Accessed 2 April 2010]

http://www.sconul.ac.uk/publications/newsletter/40/22.pdf

http://www.english.heacademy.ac.uk/explore/publications/casestudies/assess/turnitin.php

http://www.english.heacademy.ac.uk/explore/publications/casestudies/assess/turnitin.php

http://bejlt.brookes.ac.uk/article/the_role_of_turnitin_within_the_formative_process_of_academic_writing/

http://bejlt.brookes.ac.uk/article/the_role_of_turnitin_within_the_formative_process_of_academic_writing/

http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/plagiarism.aspx

25


Joint Information Systems Committee. Plagiarism Programme. Available from http://

www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/plagiarism.aspx [Accessed 29 April 2010]

Joint Information Systems Committee. Plagiarism Advice.org. Available from http://

www.plagiarismadvice.org [Accessed 2 April 2010]

Lake, J. (2008) ‗The shifting nature of plagiarism and the challenge to international foun-

dation courses.‘ Inform. 1 April p.12-13.

Leask, B. (2006) ‗Plagiarism, cultural diversity and metaphor – implications for aca-

demic staff development‘. Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education. 31(2) p.183-

199.

Ledwith, A. and Risquez, A. (2008) ‗Using Anti-Plagiarism Software to Promote Aca-

demic Honesty in the Context of Peer Reviewed Assignments.‘ Studies in Higher Edu-

cation. 33(4) p.371-384.

Liu D. (2005) ‗Plagiarism in ESOL students: is cultural conditioning truly the major cul-

prit?‘ ELT Journal 59(3) p.234-241.

Macdonald and Carroll (2006) ‗Plagiarism-a complex issue requiring a holistic institu-

tional approach.‘ Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education 31(2) p.233-245

Mardis, L. A. and Ury, C.J. (2008) ‗Innovation – an LO library: reuse of learning objects.‘

Reference Services Review 36(4) p.389-413.

Park, C. (2003) 'In Other (People's) Words: plagiarism by university students-literature

and lessons.' Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education. 28(5) p. 471-488.

Park, C. (2004) ‗Rebels without a clause: towards an institutional framework for dealing

with plagiarism by students‘. Journal of Further and Higher Education. 28(3) August. p.

291-306.

Pecorari, D. (2003) ‗Good and original: Plagiarism and patchwriting in academic second

-language writing‘. Journal of Second Language Writing 12 p.317-345.

Pecorari, D. (2008) Academic writing and plagiarism: a linguistic analysis. London: Con-

tinuum.

Rowell, G. (2009) ‗TurnitinUK: Plagiarism detection software?‘ Journal of Hospitality,

Leisure, Sport and Tourism Education 8(2) p.157-160

Song, Y. (2004) ‗International business students: a study on their use of electronic li-

brary services.‘ Reference services Review. 32(4) p.367-373.




http://www.plagiarismadvice.org

http://www.plagiarismadvice.org


26


Varga-Atkins, T. and Ashcroft, L. (2004) ‗Information skills of undergraduate business

students – a comparison of UK and international students‘. Library Management. 25

(1/2) pp.39-55.

Zhang, L. (2006) ‗Communication in academic libraries: an East Asian perspective.‘

Reference Services Review. 34(1) p.164-176.

27 How to use TurningPoint

Introduction to Electronic Voting Systems (EVS)

Fang Lou University of Hertfordshire [email protected] Jenny Lorimer University of Hertfordshire [email protected]

1. Introduction

The place of formative assessment within learning has long been established (Draper,

2009, Nicol and Mcfarlane-Dick, 2006) and electronic voting systems (EVS) are an easy

to use technology that allows lecturers to incorporate regular formative questioning into

their teaching sessions. One of the key benefits of using EVS are that large class sizes

are not a barrier to their use (Campbell & Mayer). Experience within the Faculty of

Health & Human Sciences has demonstrated that they can be used to create a level of

stimulation and interactivity that increases the student‘s learning even in large groups.

There are several different systems available, and the simplest of them require almost

no more knowledge than creating a PowerPoint™ presentation. Typically an EVS com-

prises four elements. A tool for presenting lecture content and questions (e.g. a com-

puter, PowerPoint™ and a digital projector) is required. Handsets (or clickers) which

resemble TV remote control units, enable students to respond to a lecturer‘s questions.

A small, simple receiver collects and records students‘ individual responses and soft-

ware collates and presents the responses (Educause, 2005). Both students and the lec-

turer receive immediate feedback on the student‘s understanding of the material being

taught. This allows the students to recognise areas for further study and gives the lec-

turer the opportunity to immediately clarify areas of misunderstanding or confusion

(Lorimer & Hilliard, 2009).

TurningPoint is one type of electronic voting system (EVS). You need to install the soft-

ware to write voting questions (there is no licence limit for the installation). One type of

handset (respond card) has a multiline screen to display your answer, menu, presenta-

tion mode, channel setup, etc.

Each handset has a unique ID on the back, which can be identified by the receiver dur-

ing voting. The receiver has a USB connection to the computer.




http://web-apps.herts.ac.uk/uhweb/apps/video/blip/introduction-to-turningpoint.cfm


28


For screen capture video click the link here.

2. Write an interactive slide in TurningPoint

You can open existing PowerPoint slides in TurningPoint, but only Interactive Slides can

take voting. You can insert such slides in the ‗TurningPoint 2008‘ by clicking ‗Insert

Slide‘. There are many types of slides. You can start with an easy one, for example,

‗generic‘ with 3 answers (see the screen shot).

The inserted interactive slide has three areas: question, answer and chart. Question

and answer areas can be edited, but none of them can be deleted.

3. Modify the interactive slide

More choices of answer can added, and the chart will be updated automatically. A cor-

rect answer indicator and countdown timer can also be added.

http://web-apps.herts.ac.uk/uhweb/apps/video/blip/how-to-write-an-interactive-slide.cfm

http://web-apps.herts.ac.uk/uhweb/apps/video/blip/how-to-modify-interactive-slides.cfm

29



4. Participant list

You can run the voting anonymously (as default), or you need to create/import a partici-

pant list. The basic fields in a participant list include Device ID (unique, on the back of

the handset), Last Name, First Name and Student ID. More fields can be added, and

also groups can be defined.

5. Taking votes and saving the data

The interactive slides can be run (taking votes) under ‗Slide Show‘.

The number of responses will be displayed on the top right corner. The countdown timer

can be activated by a mouse click. If the handset was pressed more than once, the last

choice will be valid. When the voting is finished, a chart will be presenting the percent-

age of each choice. With another mouse click the correct answer will be displayed.

Session data should be saved for future analyses.

http://web-apps.herts.ac.uk/uhweb/apps/video/blip/participant-list.cfm

http://web-apps.herts.ac.uk/uhweb/apps/video/blip/take-voting-and-save-the-data.cfm


30


6. Write a report in TurningPoint

If you go to ‗TurningPoint 2008‘, then go to ‗Tools‘ and choose ‗Reports‘, you can see

that there are many different types of report that can de generated. First of all you need

to choose the session data that the report is based on. Then choose the type of report,

for example, ‗Participant Results Report‘, and tick ‗Graded Participant Results…‘, and

‗Generate Report‘. The report will be seen as an Excel file ready for subsequent analy-

sis

For PowerPoint footage of Promethean click the link here

For an audio commentary on Promethean click the link here

Using Promethean in your Teaching

You can use a standard PowerPoint presentation to create your questions. The activate

system has up to a maximum of six buttons available for answer options. On the hand-

sets these are labelled A to F. It works well to use a slide format with title and contents,

putting the question in the title area. You will need to make sure you leave enough room

above your question for the voting indictor boxes to appear. This is important to bear in

mind when considering the length of your question.

http://web-apps.herts.ac.uk/uhweb/apps/video/blip/how-to-write-a-report.cfm

http://web-apps.herts.ac.uk/uhweb/apps/video/blip/Promethean_final.ppt

http://web-apps.herts.ac.uk/uhweb/apps/video/blip/promethean-final.MP3

31



Promethean handset or ‘pod’.

1.2 Booking the Equipment

The Promethean Activote equipment is booked as a standard piece of teaching equip-

ment. It is kept within LIS in the College Lane LRC. The resource includes a lap-top with

the software and a maximum of 64 handsets. These are kept in two cases each contain-

ing 32 handsets (or pods). When you book the equipment you will need to specify how

many handsets you require (32 or 64). Voting systems work well when students share a

handset between two or three as well as when they have an individual one. When com-

pleting the booking form you can request technical support to get you started. It does

take a few minutes to set up the equipment and distribute the handsets.

1.3 In the classroom

You will need to set up and switch on the lap-top as normal, making sure you remember

to connect the data projector. The ACTIVhub, which receives the signals plugs into the

back of the lap top in a standard USB socket. When you have connected it the six or-

ange LED‘s will spin around while the system sets up. When the orange LED‘s stop

spinning and the central white LED illuminates you are ready to start.


32


You click on the ACTIVstudio 2 professional icon on the bottom left corner of the desk-

top. The opens the tool box displayed on the right. You then need to click on the menu

icon in the top right hand corner of the tool box. It looks the same as the image below.

From here you click on Activote and then Session.

You select anonymous mode and then the number of handsets you will be using (up to

a maximum of 64). Clicking OK sets the software to start.

Now open your PowerPoint and bring up your first question slide. If the toolbox does not

appear, right clicking the mouse on the screen will make it visible. When your question

slide is displayed click on the pod symbol illustrated below.

33



This will make the voting answer indicator appear and you can ask your students to vote

for the correct answer. As the students vote the number of the handset they are holding

turns from grey to yellow.

Having allowed the students‘ time to answer the question you are now ready to display

the results of the poll. Clicking on the pod symbol as you did before will display a histo-

gram of the results.

When you have discussed the results of the voting move to your next PowerPoint slide,

click on the pod icon on the tool box and you are ready for the next question.

34



Campbell J Mayer R (2008) Questioning as an Instructional Method: Does it Affect

Learning from Lectures? Applied Cognitive Psychology

Draper S (2009) Catalytic assessment: understanding how MCQs and EVS can foster

deep learning British Journal of Educational Technology Vol 40 No 2 p285-293

Educause Learning Initiative(2005) www.educause.edu/iv/library/pdf/ELI7002.pdf ac-

cessed 13.5.2010

Lorimer J, Hilliard A. (2009) Incorporating Learning Technologies into Undergraduate

Radiography Education. Radiography Vol 15 No 3 214-219

Nicol DJ, Macfarlane-Dick D (2006) Formative assessment and self-regulated learning:

a model and seven principles of good feedback practice Studies in Higher Education 31,

2, 199-216

http://www.educause.edu/iv/library/pdf/ELI7002.pdf

Working on a staff research project

35 Working on a staff research project


What course are you studying and at what level?

I am studying for a BSc (Hons) Geography Degree. I am en-tering my final year in September 2010

What project were you involved in?

I was involved with a glaciology based staff research project in Switzerland. During the three-week research trip I had the opportunity to collect data for my final year dissertation and learn research techniques relevant to glaciology and physical geography. I also learnt about scientific instrumentation used in the study of glaciated and mountain environments and gained further knowledge of general field and research tech-niques.

What did you do?

As a member of a team I gathered data using various instruments from a glacially fed river and a proglacial lake, near Saas Fee. I also individually gathered tree core samples which will form the primary data for my final year dissertation.

Why did you apply to participate in the staff research project?

I applied to take part in the staff research project because it would enable me to further my knowledge and experience in data collection and fieldwork techniques and skills. It would allow me to visit a country I have not been to before, whilst gaining experience in geo-graphical research. I also felt that participating in the project would help me to decide if I wished to pursue a research-based career.

What work were you involved with?

During my time in Switzerland I collected core samples from trees that have grown in the region in response to recent glacier retreat. Analysis of the tree cores allows the rate of gla-cier recession to be estimated and compared with measures of recession gained from other lines of evidence, for example historical records. If tree cores can be used to accu-rately chart glacier recession then the technique could be applied to other basins where historical and other records of glacier retreat are not available.

Which aspects of the work you were involved in did you find most rewarding and

why?

I am particularly interested in physical geography therefore I found the whole experience extremely rewarding. Learning about and experiencing different field techniques was most beneficial to my studies.

How do you think you benefitted from the experience, both on a personal level and

in terms of your studies at the University of Hertfordshire?

The trip gave me the opportunity to put into practice what had been learned through self-study and lectures at UH. Taking part has allowed me to learn new research techniques relating to geography as a whole and more specifically to glaciology. Most aspects of geog-raphy have a ‗field work‘ side therefore to experience this in greater depth has been invalu-able. The trip will also help me with my final year dissertation, as I was able to gather my own primary data. Living away from home for three weeks in another country has built my confidence. The trip also helped to improve my team working and communication skills.

Kiran Chakravarti

http://web-apps.herts.ac.uk/uhweb/apps/video/blip/working-on-a-staff-research-project.cfm

36 Simulation Games: Shifting from Conceptual Learning to

Experiential Learning

Simulation Games: Shifting from Conceptual Learning to...


Alex Lee University of Hertfordshire [email protected]

Abstract

Numerous views exist concerning the effectiveness (or ineffectiveness) of incorporating

simulation games into learning environments. The shift from Conceptual Learning (or

Learning by ‘listening’) to Experiential Learning (or Learning by ‘doing’) is gaining in

popularity. Kolb’s (1984) Experiential Learning Cycle framework is used as the platform

to infuse the ‘Climate’ element outlined in Schwab’s (1973) ‘Elements of Educational

Experience’ to illustrate the importance of a blended learning experience. An anecdotal

case study is presented based on experiences of using simulation games in a module

taught at the University of Hertfordshire, UK in order to gauge the teaching and learning

experiences and benefits. Teaching staff initially expressed mixed feelings regarding the

teaching and learning outcomes from using simulation games. However when the out-

comes were compared with Bloom’s taxonomy of Educational Objectives these were

found to have met all levels of the objectives.

Introduction

In 1973, Schwab outlined four main elements of educational experience. For many

years, learning has been uni-directional; Shank (1997) called it the learning by ‗listening‘

method. As learning experience progressed over the years, various authors have intro-

duced different frameworks to enhance the student learning experience, such as Kolb‘s

Experiential Learning Cycle in 1984.

This paper focuses on Schwab‘s forth element, ‗climate‘. Detailed discussion will be pre-

sented on how this element can be modified to achieve a more experiential learning ex-

perience for learners (students). Kolb‘s (1984) Experiential Learning Cycle is used both

as the platform for understanding the stages of learning experiences and to demon-

strate how the ‗climate‘ element from Schwab‘s work can be incorporated into Kolb‘s

learning cycle to propel a learner‘s experience from conceptualisation to experiential.

Web-based simulation games form the primary focus of this paper and are demon-

strated as a potential method to trigger the shift in the experiential learning cycle. Com-

ments from various authors and users of simulation games are presented to support the

benefits derived from combining this ‗new‘ method with traditional learning methods. An-

ecdotal experiences from the author and his colleague, Mr. David Ogle, are also pre-

sented.

The concluding information in this paper will show how simulation games have affected

the teaching and learning experience, and how the process of a simulation game which

was incorporated in a module called Marketing Challenge in the University of Hertford-



37


shire (UH), has managed to achieve all levels of cognitive learning outlined in Bloom‘s

Taxonomy of Educational Objectives.

Learning Approaches

Schwab (1973) outlined the four main elements in an educational experience as (1)

Teacher, (2) Student, (3) Curriculum, and (4) Climate. Teachers lead this experience by

setting the educational agenda and develop the knowledge which is then presented to

the students. Students are receivers of this experience, and are in control of their par-

ticipation and acquisition of knowledge transferred. The curriculum is defined as the

knowledge, skills, and values transferred between teachers and students; and vice-

versa. The educational climate is the final element which completes this experience,

where students and teachers define, interpret, and apply the curriculum (Bloom 1968).

Discussions within the teaching and learning community have taken place concerning

two distinctly different learning approaches, which Shank (1997) has called, Learning by

‗listening‘ (or Conceptual Learning) and Learning by ‗doing‘ (or Experiential Learning).

The first method, ‗listening‘, has been practiced since the Medieval Ages, also known as

the ‗Master Lesson‘, where the educational experience is predominately one-way and

teacher-centered. At the other end of the spectrum is the ‗doing‘ method where both

teachers and students use alternative learning approaches, among which are practical

assignments, internships, case studies, and simulation games which use experience as

an essential element to achieving learning objectives.

Traditional methods of teaching and learning all have their strengths and limitations.

Various authors recognise that traditional teaching methods (lecture, textbook and case

study) may not be able to fully develop important higher order learning skills.

Lecture/Textbook

Under this format, students are usually ‗passive learners‘. This format is efficient for

communicating a large number of concepts to a large number of students, but it is

doubtful that their decision making, creativity, integration of cross functional materials,

problem solving, decision making, risk-taking, or interpersonal skills are improved by

only listening to lectures (Thorne et al., 1999; Cadotte, 1995).

Case Study

For many years, case studies have been the measuring stick, and provided for many,

the cornerstone of management education. Although they measure the integration of

theories with applied business examples that provide the context in which students can

gain in-depth knowledge, case studies do have limitations, as students are not able to

see the consequences of their decisions and test alternative proposals (Thorne et al.,

1999; Cadotte, 1995).

38



Evolution of the educational experience

O‘Hara (2007) proposes that pedagogy will have to shift from knowledge to learning, as

not only what we learn but how we learn it will need to change. The suggestion is that

interactive pedagogies must be introduced into the learning contexts, which are reflec-

tive not only with respect to particular content and individual self development, but also

with regards to group dynamics and human relations. Education should become inquiry

focused, problem embracing and case based with knowledge and learning derived from

attempts to solve problems. This problem-based learning approach supports Chickering

and Gamson‘s (1987) seven principles of good practice, where active learning is en-

couraged.

Progressing from the medieval age to the digital age, the educational experience has

also evolved. Teachers are increasingly expected to push the educational experience to

a higher and more practical level for both themselves and their students. Teachers fre-

quently incorporate project-based learning, acknowledging the superior understanding

students gain when they apply principles in practice. This belief is evidenced when Wig-

gins (1993, p.229) described authentic assessments as ―…engaging and worthy prob-

lems or questions of importance, in which students must use the knowledge presented

to fashion performances effectively and creatively. These tasks are either replicas of or

analogous to the kinds of problems faced by adult citizens and consumers or profes-

sionals in the field.‖ Mueller (2008) also supports the ‗doing‘ method, saying that ―when

learning opportunities are infused with authenticity, students are immersed in real-life

activities with the opportunity to apply, analyse, synthesise, and evaluate concepts.‖

Due to the fact that outcomes and assessments in real-life situations vary over time,

teachers are able to adapt their delivery methods to individual needs and respond as

students apply their acquired knowledge. Karet and Hubbell (2003) note that simulating

real-life learning environments enhances several skills for students, particularly those

noted by The CEO Forum as 21st Century Skills. These skills include digital-age liter-

acy, inventive thinking, effective communication, and high productivity skills, defined as

follows:

Digital-age literacy: incorporating competence in information technology to en-

hance the traditional instructional strategies.

Inventive thinking: addressing the need for a workforce that is capable of manag-

ing complex tasks, adapting to uncertain situations, and illustrating higher order of

thinking and sound reasoning.

Effective communication: including the need for students to collaborate in team

environments and having strong sense of personal, social, and civic responsibili-

ties.

High productivity: demonstrating the skills to prioritise, plan, and manage to

achieve the forecasted results.

These skills compare well to Kolb‘s Theory of Experiential Learning (1984), where high-


39


lighting experience is seen as the main element of the learning process. It can be con-

cluded that learning is an ongoing process derived from experience which requires the

resolution of conflicts among dialectical positions. In addition, it is also a holistic process

of adaptation to real-life situations, which include exchanges between people and the

environment. The main function of the learning process is the creation of knowledge.

Kolb (1984) illustrates the experiential learning cycle to reflect the holistic stages in-

volved; Specific Experience, Reflexive Observation, Abstract Conceptualisation, and

Active Experimentation (see Figure 1). In this cycle, the objective is for students

(learners) to reach the final stage of Active Experimentation. In order to achieve this, the

main catalyst is ‗convergence of knowledge‘ to propel the students forward from Ab-

stract Conceptualisation. To convert the knowledge from an abstract form of learning to

an active form of learning, the ‗climate‘ mentioned by Schwab (1973) in the discussion

above is the key element which could support or stagnate this transformation. Figure 2

illustrates Kolb‘s Experiential Learning Cycle where the ‗Convergence of Knowledge‘

can be equated to ‗climate‘ from Schwab‘s (1973) Four Elements of Educational Experi-

ences.

Figure 1 - The Experiential Learning Cycle.

Source: Kolb (1984)

Accommo-

dative Divergent

Assimilative Convergent

Specific Experience

Abstract Conceptualisa-

Active Reflexive

40



Figure 2 - The Experiential Learning Cycle incorporating ‗Climate‘ element.

Source: Kolb (1984) and Schwab (1973)

Adapting the Alternative Climate of Delivery to Simulation Games

On the basis of the experiential learning cycle, simulation games can be used as a

method of alternative climate of delivery. Kolb (1984) describes simulation games as ―an

appropriate method to facilitate experiential learning.‖ There are many different terminol-

ogies used to describe these web-based interactive games. Terms include simulators,

business simulators, simulation games, macro-world/micro-world and learning laborato-

ries. Gilgeous and D‘Cruz (1996) explain that due to the connotations of each word, there

is a high possibility of confusion as to what these games really are, and why they are

called ‗games‘. This confusion has led many people to avoid using simulation games be-

cause they are unaware of their full scope, potential, and benefits. It is therefore, impor-

tant to define them in a realistic way.

Briefly, from a user‘s point-of-view, simulation games are computer-based or web-based

interactive games that are based on a simulation of a real-life situation, where partici-

pants role-play, make decisions, and receive feedback on the results of their actions,

upon which, they have the opportunity to reflect on their previous decisions, and further

improve their future decisions.

By definition, simulation games are used for training purposes and enable trainees to put

theory into practice in a risk-free, less expensive environment. Simulation games are

used to increase business awareness and develop management skills such as decision

making, problem solving, and team working. An element of competition between individu-

als or teams of players is normally involved. Formats used include board games and

computer-based simulations of the running of a business (BNET Business Dictionary,

UK).

Specific Experience

Abstract Conceptualisa-

Active Reflexive

Accommo-

dative

Divergent

Assimilative Convergent


41


Thavikulwat (2009) explains that ―a simulation is an exercise involving reality of function

in an artificial environment, a case study but with the participants inside.‖ From the

pedagogical perspective, Akilli (2007) refers to simulation games as ―experiential exer-

cises in which there is ‗learning how to learn‘ that provides something more than ‗plain

thinking‘. It‘s beyond thinking.‖

The practice and experience of Simulation Games at the University of Hertford-

shire, UK.

At the University of Hertfordshire (UH), the first year, second semester Business stu-

dents are exposed to a module aptly named ‗Marketing Challenge‘. This module is

taught using a blend of traditional face-to-face methods and web-based technology

methods, namely, SIMbrand, a simulation game software developed in Helsinki,

Finland. SIMbrand is incorporated into traditional lectures to aid the development of stu-

dent understanding of business decision-making as a whole, with particular emphasis

on profitability (see figure 3).

In this module, students are required to work in teams of three in a virtual company

which manufactures and markets PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) phones. In the span

of eight weeks, each team must strategise and implement their decisions after consult-

ing the weekly varied market situations presented by SIMbrand. These market situa-

tions mimic actual scenarios that may be presented to a real-life company. These in-

clude among others, target market profiles; current and future trends of markets; rising

costs for promotional activities such as advertising and public relations; fluctuation of

resources such as quantity of raw materials and labour costs.

Based on these changing market situations, students are required to manufacture PDA

phones to be marketed globally for a profit. The SIMbrand simulation game allows stu-

dents the flexibility to develop their own PDA phones by adding or deleting features on

the phones, the size and weight, and the exterior aesthetics. This flexibility to develop

the PDA phones, however, comes with a cost which is then transferred into the price of

their newly developed PDA phones.

Once the PDA phones are created, the next step is to analyse the other sector of the

market, namely the target market profile. Each market and target audience varies in

their expectations. For example, the target audience in Japan has a different profile

when compared to the target audience in India or the UK. Therefore, students need to

brainstorm amongst themselves to decide which PDA phone will suit each market and

audience. Once this decision is made, the next step is to determine the future trends of

these markets. Similar to case studies, web-based simulation games are designed to

cover various aspects of a business context such as allocation of expenses for advertis-

ing, human resources, research and development and so on. Students need to com-

plete the whole process from analysing target audience profiles, to forecasting the fu-

ture trends of the targeted market, before any promotional activity can be planned. This

42



decision is made more dynamic by having the students calculate the cost of their pro-

motional activities, coupled with the rising (or lowering) of resources available in that

given week. To top it off, each team in this module is in competition with another team.

The weekly duration of this simulation game is equated to an annual decision making

period in a real-life situation.

Figure 3. An example screenshot from SIMbrand

The ‗fun‘ factor is the intrinsic motivation which challenges students to learn and im-

prove at each level of the simulation game. Malone & Lepper (1987) suggest that there

are four basic factors needed for intrinsic motivation to occur during a learning activity,

namely, challenge, curiosity, control and fantasy. These four factors make up the ‗fun‘

factor of any simulation game.

2.2. Advantages and Disadvantages of Simulation Games

There is no statistical data for this module and associated simulation games per se, to

support whether the student experiential learning process is enhanced when the

‗climate‘ element is altered from the traditional ‗listening‘ method to the ‗doing‘ method.

However, research from Kolb (1984) on Simulation games vs. other learning methods

(where simulation games are compared with other popular learning methods e.g. the

magisterial lesson and case study methods), showed that each of the teaching methods

effectively produced one or several of the four stages in the Experiential Learning Cycle,

with Specific Experience being the initial stage, followed by Reflexive Observation and

Abstract Conceptualisation, with Active Experimentation being the most desired point.

According to this research, the learning outcomes from the magisterial lesson method

are geared towards Reflexive Observation and Abstract Conceptualisation stages, while

case study and simulation game methods reproduce emotional, perceptual, and sym-

bolically complex environments, which are geared mainly towards Specific Experience,

Reflexive Observation, and the final stage of Active Experimentation. Thus, this sug-

gests that simulation games have the potential to improve the student learning experi-


43


ence and knowledge acquisition. In addition, anecdotal observations from using simula-

tion games at the University of Hertfordshire suggest that student attendance, participa-

tion, enthusiasm, and a healthy competitive spirit are all enhanced in the Marketing

Challenge module at UH. David Ogle, colleague and Module Leader of the module,

comments that ―…the game is an excellent tool for teaching the students the elements

of real live business activity, particularly in relation to financial decisions and decisions

based on issues they have studied in their general marketing lectures.‖

Gilgeous and D‘Cruz (1996) support the incorporation of simulation games into lectures

by explaining that the introduction of simulation games into current teaching methods

provides a teaching tool to contextualize what is learned with lecture and case studies

applying knowledge into real problems through ‗learning by doing‘ and enhancing un-

derstanding of cause and consequences. By complementing lectures with simulation

games, information from lectures can be used in games to deepen student understand-

ing, as numerous concepts can be dealt with in one game. Students can learn about the

quality of their decisions directly and see how decisions can result in constraints on fu-

ture decisions.

Many authors assert that using web-based simulation games to complement traditional

teaching methods has the potential to enhance learning, attitudes, and behaviours.

These findings, however, are on the merits of perceptions of learning as reported by the

participants (students and players) and the instructors (teachers and facilitators), and

may not be objective assessments. They measure affective, not cognitive learning be-

havior such as Motivation; Problem solving; Transfer of knowledge; Decision making

and cross functional skills; Increased retention of knowledge; Adaptive knowledge; and

Behavioural attitudinal and knowledge change.

44



Table 1 - Affective Learning Behaviours from various authors collected from participants

and instructors of simulation games.

Source: Various as cited in Table 1.

Motivation

Stimulate the enjoyment, motivation and engagement in experiencing and learning from close to real situa-

tions, otherwise too costly, difficult or impractical to implement. Increase students‘ motivation, and the ability

to explore, experiment and collaborate by testing hypothesis and investigating ‗what if‘ scenario. – Source:

Fripp (1993)

Problem Solving

As simulations can be designed to replicate dynamic actual market situation, they help students to under-

stand and experience the management concepts and the inter-relations among the various functions of busi-

ness. – Source: Cadotte (1995)

They address the lack of opportunities to learn real problem solving skills by actively involving students in

the decision making process of business issues. – Source: Doyle and Brown (2000)

Transfer of Knowledge

Enable student to transfer the knowledge learned into real business situations, as simulations provide oppor-

tunities for practicing business skills in a realistic risk-free learning environment. Source: Senge (1995)

Decision making and cross functional skills

Learn and improve management capacity in the business functional areas. Learn and improve their strategic

management capacity, improve their teamwork and leadership skills, and improve the quality of the corpo-

rate decisions they make. Source: Toki (2000)

Increase Retention of Knowledge

Simulation games provide active learning that involves the learning by being engaged in the instructional

process by exploring, analyzing, communicating, creating, reflecting, or using new information or experi-

ences. Source: Cadotte (1995)

Adaptable Learning

Accelerate learning ability to and encourage faster learner comprehension of complex skills than other learn-

ing methods allow. Source: Senge (1995)

Behavioural, Attitudinal, and Knowledge Change

Actively engage in situations where they must act and observe the consequences of their actions. And since

everyone shares the same experiences, learning occurs through dialogues among participants who share

observations, feelings and thoughts and arrive together at conclusions about what has been learned.

Source: Kolb et al. (1984)


45


Table 2 - Effectiveness of Simulation games in Marketing Challenge module against

Bloom‘s Old and New Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. Sources: Bloom (1956),

Overbaugh, R. And Schultz, L. (2008), and Author‘s anecdotal experience (2009).

Old Bloom’s Tax-

onomy

New Bloom’s Tax-

onomy

Simulation Games in Marketing

Challenge module

Knowledge

Terminology and previously

learned information.

Remembering

Can students recall or re-

member the information?

Knowledge Recall

Information gained from lectures will trigger the

relevance of each decision.

Comprehension

Grasping the information,

discuss and make sense

out of it.

Understanding

Can students explain ideas

and concepts?

Conception

Students with differing levels of knowledge and

ideas need to brainstorm to a consensus.

Application

Turning information into

new and concrete situa-

tions to solve problems.

Applying

Can students use informa-

tion in a new way?

Relevance

Once a consensus is agreed, it needs to fit with

the weekly differing market situations which

reflect real life scenarios.

Analysis

Breaking down informa-

tional materials into their

component parts.

Analysing

Can students distinguish

between the different parts?

Validity of Investigation

Different market situations tap on different sec-

tions of a business setting, such as profit and

loss, advertising costs, market trends, target

audience‘s preference, etc.

Synthesis

Applying prior knowledge

and skills to produce a new

or original whole.

Evaluation

Can students justify a stand

or decision?

Assessment

Once a decision is made and sent. Results with

feedback will be tabulated and reverted. Stu-

dents need to reassess the previous decisions

and decide on the next decision for further im-

provement.

Evaluation

Decide, evaluate and sup-

port the result of the end

product.

Creating

Can students create new

product or point of view?

Reflection

A reflective report is required at the end of this

module to judge the value of their decisions.

46



Based on Bloom‘s (1956) categories in the taxonomy of Educational Objectives, where

six cognitive domains were defined to represent the level of knowledge and understand-

ing of a learner, a comparison has been made to reflect the ‗Old and New‘ Bloom‘s tax-

onomy against the incorporation of the simulation game in the module, Marketing Chal-

lenge (Table 2). It is evident that by completing simulation games, the level of knowl-

edge and understanding spreads across all levels of Bloom‘s Taxonomy of Educational

Objectives.

Like any system, there will be glitches however, as highlighted in the following com-

ments from David Ogle (Module Leader) and Nasserkhan Jamalkhan, (Co-tutor of the

Marketing Challenge module):

―…the game presupposed a basic level of understanding of non-marketing aspects of a

business such as financial statement…a lot of time was spent in explaining the financial

and accounting issues.‖ – David Ogle (2010).

―…did not offer the flexibility to customize the scenario and parameters to suit the mod-

ule and its level of assessments…students may not have the level of understanding of

certain aspects of business, thus, having to work on trials and errors.‖ – Nasserkhan

Jamalkhan (2010).

3. Conclusion

The above discussions have summarised a variety of views concerning the used of web

-based interactive games in teaching. There is no one perfect learning method; teaching

and learning is and should always be flexible and relevant to both the teachers and

learners. Most importantly, it should be up-to-date, regardless of the mode of delivery.

Simulation games existed in the mid 1950s, and the use of this ‗new‘ learning method

has been growing ever since (Baker, 1994). As Kolb‘s (1984) cycle of experiential learn-

ing illustrates, it is essential to modify the method of learning in order to achieve the op-

timum experiential learning by moving from Abstract Conceptualisation to Active Experi-

mentation. In order to achieve this, Schwab (1973) suggests that to convert knowledge

from conceptual to active experience, the ‗climate‘ element needs to be modified to trig-

ger this shift between learning method and environment. Simulation games have been

avoided as a method of learning by some, due to confusion caused by terminology that

may not adequately reflect the benefits of these tools. However, once the confusion of

terminology is cleared, many authors have found the application of simulation games to

have a positive educational benefit.

Despite the various merits and drawbacks of incorporating simulation games within a

Business module at the University of Hertfordshire, overall the Marketing Challenge

module (within which simulation games have been used) has achieved all cognitive do-

mains in the learning levels of Bloom‘s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives (1956). In


47


addition, student attendance, participation and enthusiasm surpass that shown when

only traditional learning methods were used on this module.

References

Akilli, G.K. (2007) ‗Games and simulations: A new approach in education?‘, in Gibson,

D., Aldrich, C. and Prensky, M. (Eds) (2007) Games and Simulations in Online Learn-

ing, Idea Group Inc (IGI), Hershey, PA, pp.1-20.

Baker, P. (1994) ‗Designing interactive learning‘, in de Jong, T. and Sarti, L. (Eds)

(1994) Design and Production of Multimedia and Simulation-based Learning Material,

New York.

Bloom, B. (1956) Major categories in the Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. Avail-

able at: http://www.krummefamily.org/guides/bloom.html [Accessed: 27 January, 2010].

Bloom, B. (1968) ‗Learning for Mastery‘. UCLA Evaluation Comment, Vol. 1, No. 2, pp.

1.

BNET Business Dictionary, UK. Available at: http://dictionary.bnet.com/definition/

simulation+game.html [Accessed: 18 January, 2010]

Cadotte, E.R. (1995) ‗Business Simulations: The next step in management training‘.

The Magazine of the Graduate Management Admission Council, Autumn.

Chickering, A. & Gamson, Z. (1987) ‗Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergradu-

ate Education‘. AAHE Bulletin; pp. 3-7. Journal Article (080) – Viewpoint (120). Ameri-

can Association for Higher Education, Washington D.C., USA.

Doyle, D. and Brown, W. (2000) ‗Using a business simulation to teach applied skills –

the benefits and the challenges of using student teams from multiple countries‘. Journal

of European Industrial Training, Vol. 24, No. 6, pp. 330-6.

Fripp, J. (1993) Learning through simulations: A guide to the design and use of simula-

tions in business and education. McGraw-Hill, London.

Gilgeous, V. and D‘Cruz, M. (1996) ‗A study of business and management games‘.

Management Development Review, Vol. 9, No. 1, pp.32-9.

Karet, N. and Hubbell, E.R. (2003) Authentic Assessment: Current Trends and Issues in

Instructional Technology‘. Available at: http://www.elizrosshubbell.com/portfolio/

authenticassessment.pdf [Accessed 20 January, 2010].

Kolb, D.A. (1984) Experiential Learning: Experience as the source of learning and de-

http://dictionary.bnet.com/definition/simulation+game.html

http://dictionary.bnet.com/definition/simulation+game.html

48



velopment. Prentice-Hall Inc. New Jersey.

Kolb, D.A., Rubin, I.M. and McIntyre, J.M. (1984) Organisational Psychology: An experi-

ential approach. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.

Malone, T.W. and Lepper, M.R. (1987) Making learning fun: A Taxonomy of intrinsic moti-

vations for learning. In Snow, R.E. and Farr, M.J. (Eds.), Aptitude, Learning and Instruc-

tion III: Conative and Affective Process Analyses. Hillsdale, N.J.: Erlbaum, 1987.

Mueller, J. (2008) ‗What is Authentic Assessment?‘ Authentic Assessment Toolbox. Avail-

able at: http://jonathan.mueller.faculty.noctrl.edu/toolbox/whatisit.htm [Assessed: 22

January, 2010].

Novak, J.D. and Gowin, D.B. (1984). Learning how to learn. University of Cambridge,

New York.

Ogle, D. (2010) Visiting Lecturer and Module Leader for Marketing Challenge module in

the University of Hertfordshire, UK.

O‘Hara, M. (2007) ‗Strangers in the strange land: knowing, learning, and education for the

global knowledge society‘. Futures, Vol. 39, No. 8, pp.930-41.

Overbaugh, R. and Schultz, L. (2008) Bloom‘s Taxonomy. Old Dominion University.

Available at: http://www.odu.edu/educ/roverbau/Bloom/blooms_taxonomy.htm [Assessed:

27 January, 2010].

Schank, R. (1997) Virtual Learning. A Revolutionary Approach to Building a Highly Skilled

Workforce. McGraw-Hill. New York.

Schwab, J. (1973) ‗The practical 3: Translation into curriculum‘. School Review, Vol. 81,

No. 4, pp. 501-22.

Senge, P. (1995) The fifth discipline: The art and practice of the learning organisation.

Doubleday, New York.

Summers, G.J. (2004) Today‘s business simulation industry. Simulation & Gaming, Vol.

35, No.2, pp208-41. Available at: http://sag.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/35/2/208 [Assessed:

22 January, 2010].

Thavikulwat, P. (2009) The architecture of computerised business gaming simulations.

Simulation & Gaming, Vol. 35, No. 2, pp. 242-69.

Thorne, L.D., Farrell, L., Montuori, L. and Willems, C. (1999) The use of a behavioural

simulation to teach business ethics. Teaching Business Ethics. Vol. 3, No. 3, pp. 283-96.

http://jonathan.mueller.faculty.noctrl.edu/toolbox/whatisit.htm

http://www.odu.edu/educ/roverbau/Bloom/blooms_taxonomy.htm

http://sag.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/35/2/208


49


Toki, I. (2000) An argument for the information system educators‘ preferred model of

internet-based business simulation. Proceedings of the NACCQ 2000 Conference, Wel-

lington, New Zealand. Available at: http://www.in-site.co.nz/misc_links/papers/

toki381.pdf [Assessed: 22 January, 2010].

Wiggins, G.P. (1993) Assessing Student Performance: Exploring the purpose and limits

of testing. Jossey-Bass. San Francisco.

http://www.in-site.co.nz/misc_links/papers/toki381.pdf

http://www.in-site.co.nz/misc_links/papers/toki381.pdf

50 Enquiry-based Learning in Undergraduate Midwifery

Education

Enquiry-based Learning in Undergraduate Midwifery Edu...


Sandy Wong University of Hertfordshire [email protected]

Abstract

Enquiry-based learning (EBL) describes an environment in which learning is driven by a

process of enquiry owned by the students. Starting with a scenario or an object as a

trigger, and with the guidance and support of a teacher as facilitator, students identify

their own topics and learning needs. They examine the resources needed to research

the topic/s, thereby acquiring the requisite knowledge. In this way, knowledge gained is

more readily retained because it has been acquired through experience and in relation

to real problems. Accordingly, students are encouraged to take responsibility for their

group to organise and direct the learning process. Advocates of problem-based learning

(PBL) and EBL claim that these approaches help to enhance content knowledge; and

foster the development of communication, team-working, problem-solving, and self-

directed learning skills. The paper considers the concept of EBL and its use in under-

graduate midwifery education, within the School of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work

(NMS) at The University of Hertfordshire, and discusses some of the advantages and

limitations of its application.

Introduction

In the 1960s, the traditional style of teaching, where students were often predominantly

expected to reproduce fact-laden instructional materials (Bruner 1961), was perceived

to be failing. Bruner (1961) argues that ―practice in discovering for oneself teaches one

to acquire information in a way that makes that information more readily viable in prob-

lem solving". This realisation led to a move to explore new approaches in teaching and

learning. Inspired by the theory of constructivist learning (Piaget 1950) and the idea of

experiential learning (Kolb 1984), a range of teaching practices emerged.

Enquiry-based learning (EBL) was born out of this ‗discovery movement.‘ EBL is consid-

ered as a constructivist based approach to education which is student-centred and en-

courages active learning. Constructivism is an education theory based on the premise

that learning is achieved by ‗mental construction‘, whereby students learn by ‗fitting in‘

new information to what they already know (Caine and Caine 1991). Therefore, learning

is affected not only by the context in which the idea is taught, but also by the existing

knowledge, beliefs and attitudes of students.

Within EBL, progress of learning is assessed not only by the amount of knowledge the

students acquired, but also by how well they develop experimental and analytical skills

during the process (Price 2003, Savin-Baden 2003). EBL involves a range of philosophi-

cal, curricular and pedagogical approaches to teaching and learning. Its core premises

include the requirement that learning should be based around student enquiry (Khan



51


and O‘Rouke 2004). EBL pedagogy and curriculum require students to work together on

their own in small groups to solve problems, rather than just receiving direct instructions

on what to do from their teacher (Bruner 1961).

In an enquiry-based learning environment, the teacher takes the ‗back seat‘ and adopts

a facilitator role. Instead of imparting knowledge, the teacher helps students with the

process of discovering knowledge themselves. EBL has gained much popularity in re-

cent years. However, there is still plenty of debate about its efficacy, as demonstrated in

Mayor‘s (2004) thesis on the ‗three-strikes rule‘ against pure discovery learning.

Characteristics of Enquiry-Based Learning

Learning within EBL is essentially student-centred, with an emphasis on group work us-

ing books, and other information resources. EBL emphasises constructivist ideas of

learning. Knowledge is gained and built in a step-wise fashion. While incorporating

some of the elements of problem-based learning (PBL), which was famously and exten-

sively used by McMaster University in Canada (Camp 1996), EBL covers a wider spec-

trum of approaches (Kahn and O‘Rourke 2004). EBL activities include small-scale in-

vestigations and project work. Kahn and O‘Rourke (2004) suggest that these small-

scale investigations allow scope for adaptation to a disciplinary context, which in turn

can apply to a scale ranging from specific modules to an entire educational programme

in curriculum design.

With Problem Based Learning (PBL), students are usually asked to investigate a single

issue (Camp 1996; Savin-Baden 2003, 2007), whereas, through EBL‘s enquiry process,

knowledge is integrated from different curricular themes or areas, thus helping students

to clarify tacit knowledge (Kahn and O‘Rourke 2004). The student-centred instructional

strategy within EBL allows students to collaboratively solve problems and reflect on their

own experiences. The underpinning philosophy of EBL is that students work together in

a facilitated group. They identify issues relating to a scenario/trigger which they wish to

know more about or learn in more depth. The process allows students the opportunity to

explore aspects that they are interested in. There is clearly some overlap between the

principles of EBL and PBL, in that both approaches are student-centred and encourage

active learning in small groups. Albanese and Mitchell (1993), however, consider this

overlap to be one of the main advantages of grouping these approaches to learning un-

der the same umbrella term of enquiry-based learning.

Within EBL, the teacher does not begin with a statement, but instead with a question or

a scenario/trigger to intrigue, stimulate and/or challenge the students. According to

Bruner (1961), posing questions or a situation for students to solve, is in many ways, a

more effective method of instruction. As mentioned earlier, within EBL, students define

their own learning, and/or topics to be studied. Approaches used to solve the problems

are determined by the students and not the teacher. This is an example of the 3rd level

of the Herron‘s Scale (Herron 1971), which classifies inquiries into different levels de-

52



pending on the amount of guidance provided by the teacher, and whether there is an

already existing solution to the problem or question.

In addition students not only investigate the question/s posed by the teacher, they also

formulate their own research topics and convert that research into useful knowledge. In

this way, deeper learning and understanding of the subject-matter is achieved (Marton

and Säljö 1976). Students are given a defined time scale to work on their scenario/

trigger and are expected to report back at a ‗feedback‘ or ‗outcomes presentation‘ ses-

sion at a later date. Furthermore, the knowledge-development and leadership skills re-

quired for tackling complex problems, can be fostered through this learning process

(Kahn and O‘Rourke 2004).

This approach to teaching and learning does not mean that the teacher is then being

made ‗redundant‘; enquiry-based teaching does not have to take on an ‗all or nothing‘

approach. Schwab (1962) called for inquiry to be divided into four distinct levels. This

was later formalised by Herron (1971) who developed the Herron‘s Scale to evaluate

the amount of enquiry within a particular inquiry exercise. Since then, there have been a

number of variants proposed. The consensus in the education community, however, is

that there is a wide spectrum of enquiry-based teaching methods available (Savin-

Baden 2007).

Benefits of EBL in the Teaching and Learning of Midwifery Education

In order to provide the highest standard of care to support women and their families with

varying psychosocial issues, midwives are expected to work with other professionals

such as doctors, health visitors and social workers. Working with a multi-disciplinary

health care and social team to provide holistic care (NMC 2004) demands good inter-

personal and communication skills for discussion, negotiation, and information sharing.

Researching information for evidence-based practice and reflective practice are all cru-

cial elements of the midwives‘ role (NMC 2004). The principles of midwifery education,

therefore, are aimed at equipping student midwives to acquire knowledge and skills

necessary for registration and practice. The educational programmes must be designed

to enable students to become competent and confident midwifery practitioners in order

to meet the required care standards (NMC 2009).

Fundamentally, within EBL, student midwives conduct discussions, exchange knowl-

edge and formulate their learning goals (with guidance) as a group. This helps them to

develop reciprocity and co-operation among each other and encourages active learning

(Chickering and Gamson 1987). The process of EBL encourages team-working experi-

ence, which is essential as midwives are required to work in multi-disciplinary team set-

tings (NHS 2010; NMC 2004, 2008). It also motivates students to do research them-

selves, thereby bringing with it a real research-orientated approach to the subject. The

pattern of self-directed learning not only develops deeper learning (Marton and Säljö

1976), but also the key skills for postgraduate study. This may lead to original thought,


53


in turn, resulting in larger research projects, papers and publications in future. The EBL

process also assists students to cultivate the skills for life-long learning (NMC 2005).

The EBL approach to learning gives students the freedom and the responsibility to or-

ganise their own work pattern, within the time constraints which the tasks allow. EBL

also enables students to develop a more flexible approach to their studies. This is par-

ticularly useful as student midwives tend to be more mature and many have their own

families. They learn to manage effectively their own learning processes, individually and

collaboratively. This more flexible approach helps to respect diverse talents and ways of

learning (Chickering and Gamson 1987) and may even allow students to enjoy their

learning, making it more rewarding and fun.

For the teaching staff, EBL can also encourage contact between students and teachers.

This helps teachers to communicate high expectations and to emphasise time on task

(Chickering and Gamson 1987). The ‗feedback‘ or ‗outcomes presentation‘ sessions

provide further opportunities for teacher and students to give and receive prompt feed-

back. The EBL process also offers the teachers opportunities to gain a better under-

standing of the learning process, the diverse and changing needs of the students. In-

deed it can be argued that the EBL process encompasses the seven principles for good

practice in higher education (Chickering and Gamson 1987).

EBL in undergraduate Midwifery Education at the University of Hertfordshire (UH)

Fitness for Practice (UKCC 1999) recommends the use of enquiry-based learning within

pre-registration education. EBL is seen as an effective strategy to enable student mid-

wives to develop communication and team working skills and the ability to link theory to

practice. The EBL process also provides opportunities for student midwives to foster

critical reflective and life-long learning skills. In essence, EBL has many features that

are highly applicable and relevant to midwifery education.

Within the midwifery department of the School of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work

(NMS) at the University of Hertfordshire, the EBL approach has been introduced into the

undergraduate programme since September 2008. Currently, there are two modules

running entirely on the EBL process, one in the first year and one in the second year.

Some of the EBL principles are also applied to topics in other modules where appropri-

ate. At the University of Hertfordshire, the midwifery department adopted a similar proc-

ess to that adopted at The City University in London (TCU 2007). Students from the

same cohort are divided into groups of 10 or 11 depending on the number of students.

For example, there were 65 students in the September 2009 cohort; hence six EBL

groups were formed. Students remain in their assigned EBL group throughout their

study programme. This way, it allows the groups to come together to ‗form, storm, norm

and perform‘ (Tuckman 1965).

With each new scenario or trigger (which could be a poem, a picture or an object), stu-

dents will have a face-to-face facilitation session with their teacher (see figure 1 for an

54



illustration of an EBL process). During this session, the students would be reminded of

the ground rules they have previously set and agreed. A chair-person and a ‗scribe‘

would be nominated within the group to monitor the progress of the task in hand, and to

record the discussion respectively. Student midwives take turns in being the chair or the

scribe. With the teacher (as facilitator) present to answer any queries, students ‗brain

storm‘ their ideas and decide on what topic/s to inquire or to investigate. They then divide

the tasks amongst themselves.

At UH, student midwife EBL sessions are time-tabled on the training programme so that

students can plan and organise their own learning at their own pace. They are encour-

aged to use self-directed time to work in small groups to investigate and reconstruct in-

formation about specific aspects of the scenario/trigger. Depending on the complexity of

the subject being explored, student midwives are usually given one to two weeks to work

on a task. The University of Hertfordshire managed learning environment, StudyNet, is

also utilised for group discussion. Finally, students come back together to present their

learning to their teacher and/or other group members. Feedback from teacher and/or

peer helps students to reflect on both their team working and how their learning has

taken place. This skill of ‗reflection–on–action‘ (Schon 1987) is vital in helping students to

develop into critical reflective learners and practitioners (Brockbank & McGill 2000).

Figure 1: An EBL Process

(Adapted from The City University (TCU 2007)


55


Advantages and Limitations of EBL in Midwifery Education

As with most teaching and learning methods, there are inevitably merits and drawbacks.

Advantages

EBL affords student midwives opportunities for team working and development of col-

laborative working skills (Albanese & Mitchell 1993) which form an integral part of mid-

wifery practice. It also helps students to gain a better understanding of the topic/s being

studied. EBL also encourages the skill developments in areas such as literature search-

ing, problem solving and presentation of information to colleagues and others. These

skills are all essential for clinical practice to support the public health role of midwives.

Furthermore, the EBL process enables student midwives to develop skills in clinical rea-

soning, critical appraisal and information gathering. As students learn to relate theoreti-

cal knowledge to clinical practice, it helps in closing the theory–practice gap (Landers

2000).

Questioning, reasoning, and thinking critically about what they see, hear and learn, as

well as weighing up evidence and the opinions of others all enable student midwives to

reach their own conclusions. Such processes help to develop critical thinking and ana-

lytical skills (Price 2003, Savin-Baden 2003). This is evidenced in our second year stu-

dents, as they demonstrate increasing confidence in articulating their learning outcomes

from their enquiries.

The Nursing and Midwifery Council (2004) requires every midwife to be a reflective prac-

titioner. Reflecting constructively on their own learning, and acting on feedback from

their teacher/s and peers through the EBL process, student midwives will be able to nur-

ture a culture of reflecting from an early stage of their midwifery career. Their reflective

skills will also be enhanced by reflection sessions, facilitated by linked teachers, at their

clinical placement sites.

The EBL process enables student midwives to understand and communicate more ef-

fectively with individuals from differing backgrounds and perspectives. This is of particu-

lar relevance as midwives work within a diverse population. Sharing their knowledge and

experience with fellow students and staff also develop and enhance the students‘ pres-

entation skills. This can be beneficial to student employability in the future when compet-

ing for jobs after qualification. Recent feedback (at a service and education meeting)

from a recruitment officer of one of our training partners, indicated that midwifery gradu-

ates from the University of Hertfordshire out-performed other candidates in their per-

formance at job interviews. As mentioned earlier, the EBL feedback or outcomes pres-

entation sessions offer opportunities for students to receive prompt feedback and

evaluation, from their teacher and/or peers, on their learning. Prompt feedback is impor-

tant to help students to improve and/or consolidate their learning (Chickering and Gam-

son 1987). EBL also affords the teachers the flexibility to support students to foster a

wide range of skills when engaging them in their learning process.

56



Limitations

Sweller (1988) proposed the theory of cognitive load to explain how novice learners re-

act to problem solving during the early stages of learning. Certainly active problem solv-

ing is useful as students become more competent, and better able to deal with their

working memory limitations. However, early in the learning process, students often find

it difficult to process a large amount of information within a short period of time. Thus

the rigors of active problem solving may become an issue for novice learners. This is

supported by Mayor‘s (2004) view that guided discovery was more effective than pure

discovery in helping students learn and transfer knowledge into practice. this view is

substantiated by student verbal and written feedback and the process of module evalua-

tion at the University of Hertfordshire.

To help students avoid cognitive loading issues, the teacher as facilitator can provide

the ‗scaffolding‘ by giving more guidance and support in the early stage of the process

(Sweller 1988). Herron‘s (1971) model that classifies inquiries into different levels, ties

in with the debate on the need for ‗scaffolded‘/guided inquiry when students of any age

are new to the EBL process. Within the midwifery department of the School of Nursing,

Midwifery and Social Work at the University of Hertfordshire, measures have been

taken in the 2009/10 academic year to provide more ‗scaffolding‘/guidance to first year

students. Although it is the students who determine their learning needs, the teacher

can do much to assist in setting parameters to guide them to process within appropriate

confines. Whilst the second year students are much more confident with the EBL proc-

ess and require very little facilitation, the teacher only needs to ensure that the students

stay on track during their ‗brain-storming‘ discussion session. Facilitator guides are pro-

duced for teachers for each specific EBL scenario/trigger, helping to ensure equity and

correct process across all groups.

Occasionally, conflicts between group members can arise and pose problems. Never-

theless, this could be avoided with good facilitation, early establishment of ground rules,

and good team-building work to allow the group to ‗form, storm, norm and per-

form‘ (Tuckman 1965). However, appropriate teacher training for EBL facilitation may

become an issue with increasing constraints on resources.

One of the means of supporting student learning is through assessment. Indeed, as-

sessment is often seen to be the driving force for the student learning experience

(Gibbs 1999). Biggs (1999) emphasised that learning must align with achievement of

intended/desired outcomes. However, given that most learning with EBL takes place

outside the classroom, the assessment strategy must be robust. Facilitating the conduct

of the enquiry with evidence of group work (i.e. record of meeting etc), discussions on

StudyNet (or similar MLE) and due process is essential to ensure learning outcomes are

met.

Unlike traditional teaching, some student midwives find the process of EBL uncomfort-

able. This is especially so in the beginning when they are not used to working in groups


57


and/or looking for information for themselves. To ensure success with the application of

EBL in midwifery students at UH, preparation and the appropriate recruitment process of

selecting the right calibre of candidates into the training programme are crucial. Within

the midwifery department of the School of Nursing Midwifery and Social Work at the Uni-

versity of Hertfordshire, a new selection process with a short EBL session built in has

been implemented to assist in this process.

Finally, while EBL may appear to sit well within some of the midwifery modules, its effec-

tiveness must still be evaluated and monitored at regular intervals. Midwives must ac-

quire certain skills in order to practice competently. In the author‘s view it would therefore,

not be appropriate to apply EBL across the whole undergraduate programme. For exam-

ple, it would not be appropriate in the teaching and learning of certain clinical skills.

These skills can only be acquired through demonstration and practice. Therefore, a

blended learning approach in line with the University of Hertfordshire teaching and learn-

ing strategy should be adopted.

Conclusion

Within EBL, students are encouraged to take responsibility for seeking evidence and ana-

lysing their knowledge with the purpose of making implicit reasoning and tacit knowledge

explicit (Price 2003). The students are placed at the centre of the learning process. They

are presented with greater independence in decision-making process relating to their

learning, hence the term ‗learner independence‘. A key role of the teacher is to facilitate

and support the learning process to enable students to work collaboratively. This allows

students to pool together their collective knowledge and understanding, as they work to-

gether to create new knowledge for specific purposes.

In summary, EBL can be thought of as a broad umbrella term that describes a range of

approaches to teaching and learning. It is guided by a process of supportive enquiry. It is

structured to foster ‗learner independence‘ through active, and usually collaborative en-

gagement with relevant and meaningful problems and issues.

EBL creates an environment in which learning is driven by a process of enquiry shared by

the students. It also enables student midwives to take increasing control of their own

learning as they progress through their study programme. Moreover, it encourages them

to acquire professional and personal skills which are essential for clinical practice, and

are highly valued in the competitive labour market. Creativity, independence, team-

working, goal-setting and problem-solving skills are all essential to the personal and pro-

fessional development of our student midwives and acquisition of these skills enriches

the capacity for ‗lifelong learning‘.

Although the EBL process may not be appropriate for implementation across the whole

midwifery programme, it is nonetheless, a very useful tool in undergraduate midwifery

education. Since its introduction to the midwifery department of the School of Nursing

58



Midwifery and Social Work at the University of Hertfordshire, positive feedback has to

date outweighed any limitations. Having evaluated module feedback from students and

staff involved with EBL, this learning and teaching approach appears to be a very viable

alternative to traditional teaching and learning methods.

References

Albanese, M., & Mitchell, S. (1993). "Problem-Based Learning: A Review of the Literature

on its Outcomes and Implementation Issues," Academic Medicine, 68(1), 52-81.

Biggs, J.B. (1999). Teaching for quality learning at university: what the student does.

Philadelphia. Society for Research into Higher Education: Open University Press.

Brockbank , A. & McGill, I. (2000). Facilitating Reflective Learning in Higher Education.

Buckingham. The Society for Research into Higher Education & Open University Press.

Bruner, J. S. (1961). "The act of discovery". Harvard Educational Review. 31 (1): 21–32.

Caine, R. N. & Caine, G. (1991). Making Connections: Teaching and the human brain.

Alexandria VA. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Camp, G. (1996). Problem-Based Learning: A Paradigm Shift or a Passing Fad? MEO

1996; 1:2.

Chickering, A. W. & Gamson, Z. F. (1987). Seven principles for good practice in under-

graduate education. American Association for Higher Education Bulletin, 39(7), 3–7.

Gibbs, G. (1999). Using assessment strategically to change the way students learn. In

Brown, S. & Glasner, A. (eds.). (1999). Assessment Matters in Higher Education. Maid-

enhead: Society for Research into Higher Education and Open University Press, pp 41–

53.

Herron, M.D. (1971). The nature of scientific enquiry. School Review, 79(2), 171- 212.

Kahn, P. & O‘Rourke, K. (2004). Guide to Curriculum Design: Enquiry-Based Learning.

London. Higher Education Academy.

Kolb, D. A. (1984). Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and De-

velopment. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. Prentice Hall.

Landers, M.G. (2000). The theory–practice gap in nursing: the role of the nurse teacher.

Journal of Advanced Nursing, Volume 32, Number 6, December 2000, pp. 1550-1556(7).


http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/bsc/jan


59


Marton, F. & Säljö, R. (1976). "On Qualitative Differences in Learning — 1: Outcome

and Process" Brit. J. Educ. Psych. 46, 4-11.

Mayer, R. (2004). "Should there be a three-strikes rule against pure discovery learning?

The case for guided methods of instruction". American Psychologist

59 (1): 14–19.

National Health Service (NHS) (2010). Midwifery: Skills required. London. NHS careers.

http://www.nhscareers.nhs.uk/midwife_skills.shtml (accessed 04.06.10)

Nursing and Midwifery Council, 2004. Midwives rules and standards. London. NMC.

Nursing and Midwifery Council, 2005. The Prep Handbook. London. NMC.

Nursing and Midwifery Council, 2008. The Code: Standards of conduct, performance

and ethics for nurses and midwives. London. NMC.

Nursing and Midwifery Council, 2009. Standards for pre-registration midwifery educa-

tion. London. NMC.

Piaget, J. (1950). The Psychology of Intelligence. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.

Price, B. (2003). Studying Nursing using Problem-Based and Enquiry-Based learning.

Basingstoke: Palgrave.

Savin-Baden, M. (2003). Facilitating problem-based learning. Maidenhead: SRHE and

Open University Press.

Savin-Baden, M. (2007). Challenging Models and Perspectives in Problem-Based

Learning. In De Graaff, E. & Kolmos, A. (eds.). (2007). Management of Change: Inple-

mentation of Problem-Based and Project –Based Learning in Engineering . Rottendam.

Sense Publishers.

Schön, D.A. (1987). Educating the Reflective Practitioner. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Schwab, J. J. (1962). The teaching of science as enquiry. In J.J.Schwab & P.F. Brand-

wein (Eds.). The teaching of science. pp. 3-103. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Sweller, J. (1988). "Cognitive load during problem solving: Effects on learning". Cogni-

tive Science. 12 (2): 257–285.

The City University (TCU). (2007). Student Guide to Enquiry Based Learning (EBL) (for

pre-registration nursing and midwifery programmes). London.The City University.

http://www.nhscareers.nhs.uk/midwife_skills.shtml

60



Tuckman, B. (1965). Developmental sequence in small groups. Psychological Bulletin.

63; 384-399.

United Kingdom Central Council for Nursing, Midwifery and Health Visiting (UKCC).

(1999). Fitness for Practice: London.The UKCC Commission for Nursing and Midwifery

Education.

61 Student Voice


Sally Graham University of Hertfordshire [email protected]

Developing and Listening to Student Voices through a

Student-Staff Research Project

How can we listen to student voices in order to improve

learning, teaching and the curriculum? If we, as members

of staff, are to enable students to learn effectively we need

to understand how they are engaging with their studies,

how they are developing concepts and how they are con-

necting to their subjects, their fellow learners and their

teachers. We need to find out how they understand and

use their environments and resources for learning. Stu-

dents nowadays are expected to respond to numerous

institutional and national requests for information, de-

signed with a ‗market research‘ approach. As Batchelor

(2008) notes, ‗Students are trapped in a paradox: end-

lessly canvassed and consulted through course quality

evaluation questionnaires, it is as if theirs are the voices everyone longs to hear. But the

restricted scope of the commercial language of evaluation can have the effect of silencing

them.‘ Theirs becomes the voice of the consumer, rather than one of the voices in a part-

nership of enquiry into practice and how it can be developed. Rowland (2000) has pointed

out that systems, such as student feedback questionnaires, can be seen as ‗limiting rather

than enhancing communication between teachers and students.‘ It becomes a one- way

evaluation rather than a dialogue.

In order to hear what students would like to say about their learning experiences we need

to facilitate their voices. They need opportunities to enquire into their experiences, to link

their findings with those of others and to understand different perspectives. They need to

develop appropriate ways of communicating what they know to people so that they will be

listened to. In many ways they need to act as researchers.

In the Faculty of Humanities, Law and Education at the University of Hertfordshire, we

identified that one of the aspects of students‘ experience that we were interested in was

students‘ responses to feedback and how they were using it to develop their work. We

wanted to obtain students‘ views on this. We also wanted to find ways of working collabo-

ratively with students so that they could communicate effectively and we could deepen our

understanding of the student experience. We decided to initiative a student-staff research

project into feedback in the Faculty.

We decided not to select students who were already engaged with us as student represen-

tatives on programmes, for example, as we were looking to develop and hear different

voices. The student union employment agency identified students from each school in the

Faculty who would be paid to work with us for 16 hours during the Spring term.


62 Student Voice


The Process

Five students and three members of staff met together for the first session. This group

size was chosen so that staff would not outnumber students and so that there would be

opportunities for everyone to contribute. In order for staff and students to develop effec-

tive working relationships we needed to develop connections with each other. We found

many ways in which we were connected including places we had visited, films we had

seen amongst others. Sharing these topics in a relaxed environment started to help us

see each other as people rather than roles. We could then move on to discussing the

focus of the project and how we were going to undertake our research.

The student-staff team worked together to identify a research approach and to complete

Faculty ethics procedures. We spent time exploring issues of confidentiality and the

sensitive nature of our topic. We decided that students would collect data from other

students about feedback as the student-researchers felt that students would be ‗more

honest‘ with other students. The student researchers would then work with staff to ana-

lyse the data and to put it into the wider context of their own experience and other re-

search reports and articles on the topic.

The student-researchers asked 86 students from across the Faculty the questions we

had developed from our discussions. These were: 1) What do you consider to be feed-

back? 2) What was the impact of feedback? and 3) How have you used feedback.

They asked these questions of an opportunistic sample over a period of two weeks. Be-

fore starting the data collection we had discussed issues that could arise including how

to deal with situations when people won‘t engage with you. It is not easy to approach

people you don‘t know to ask them questions and it was important to explore what could

happen so that shared approaches could be discussed. The students were very persis-

tent and worked hard to collect a significant amount of data.

Many projects looking at feedback ask student informants for information and then staff

analyse the data and interpret the findings. We were aiming to build students‘ abilities to

identify and share knowledge about the topic so they needed to be participants in the

whole project. We met as a group to analyse the data. We read data aloud and shared

ideas about emerging themes. Everyone was new to this data set so we were all able to

suggest themes and students and staff were equally perceptive. It was very important at

this stage for us all to pay attention to each others ideas and to use supportive listening

skills. We were modelling how we were valuing contributions and building our under-

standing together. A research fellow talked with us about coding data and students and

staff worked in pairs to begin to do this. We spent three sessions analysing the data.

A key part of the work was the discussion between students and staff about experi-

ences of feedback. Students were able to talk in detail about different aspects of their

feedback experience and also hear some staff perspectives. The discussion was under-

taken in a professional way and no names of staff or students were used. This discus-

63 Student Voice


sion was more than a focus group in which we gained the ideas of some students. In-

stead it was a deeper learning experience as over a number of sessions we all sought

to understand the issues better by drawing on data we collected, our own experience

and some of the research in the field that we read and brought into the discussion. Be-

tween sessions each member of the group kept a reflective journal about the project.

This was personal to them but they could use it in the discussions as appropriate. We

all found that we started paying more attention to feedback and thinking about the topic

than we had done previously. Some students talked on-line or in person to friends at

other universities about feedback approaches. This was enabling all involved to articu-

late our understanding of the topic.

One way of articulating and sharing our knowledge on the topic was a written report.

click the link here

There was not time to involve the students in writing this report although they com-

mented on drafts. In future projects it will be important to plan for students to write sec-

tions in order to develop their writing voices. Another way of sharing information was a

PowerPoint and oral presentation at an internal Learning and Teaching conference for

staff.

click the link here

The student-researchers were introduced to the facilities available in the School of Edu-

cation to make a video of their presentation, the ‗Vox Box‘ and used it to record their

work. They then presented this in a lecture theatre for staff and were able to respond to

questions.

Click the Image to view the student recordings

Humanities Student Law Student

After the completion of the project we explored what we had learned about working to-

gether as a student-staff group. Students felt that they had gained skills in working with

staff, in research approaches, communication and presentation skills. They also felt

highly motivated to do more work in this way and hoped to be an influence in bringing

http://web-apps.herts.ac.uk/uhweb/apps/video/blip/feedback-for-learning-report.pdf

http://web-apps.herts.ac.uk/uhweb/apps/video/blip/feedback-powerpoint.ppt

http://sharing.theflip.com/session/0603dee9df41a0415afa8d9e2173a0a2/video/14604912

http://sharing.theflip.com/session/0603dee9df41a0415afa8d9e2173a0a2/video/14604918

64 Student Voice


about change in the University. One of the students is planning to lead a project for first

year students on how feedback at university is different from school and how one can

make best use of feedback. Another student is aiming to work in her school and to help

other students develop as student-researchers.

For all the staff involved it was a new way of working. From the onset we all agreed that

the project was undertaken in this way because not only did we want to collect informa-

tion on the topic but we also wanted to model a staff-student process to enquiring into,

and developing, learning and teaching. Staff made time to develop relationships be-

tween the group members which was imperative as it enabled everyone‘s confidence to

grow, allowing them to talk more openly. However, what most surprised and delighted

staff was the level of risk-taking that grew from this way of working, with students confi-

dently presenting the project to various audiences, using a range of technology.

We wanted to engage in ‗transforming assumptions about students‘ role in the campus

community…‘ (Nicholls, 2005), and this project has we feel gone a long way to achiev-

ing this. There‘s still more work to be done, but strong foundations have now been laid

for making a step change in integrating the student voice into learning and teaching.

References

Batchelor, D (2008) Have students got a voice? In Barnett, R & Di Napoli, R Changing

Identities in Higher Education: Voicing Perspectives Abingdon: Routledge pp40-54

Nicholls, G (2005) The Challenge to Scholarship: Rethinking learning, teaching and re-

search Abingdon: Routledge

Rowland, S (2000) The Enquiring University Teacher Buckingham: Open University